In session three of our recent Rhazdrugs webinar series, we covered the importance of integrating hazardous drug information into the EHR and how Rhazdrugs makes this a simple, no-brainer task.
In fact, we surveyed our clients and discovered that healthcare providers are twice as likely to access hazardous drug information when it's readily available in their EHR system. The fewer the clicks, the more likely nurses, clinicians, and other healthcare workers are to locate and actually use this critical, life-saving information.
As we said in the webinar, if you're one of our clients and Rhazdrugs is not integrated into your EHR, let's talk because it's not hard to do. We promise you will get much more use out of the solution if your clinicians can find it easily.
With that in mind, let’s talk about your peers’ experiences.
Many of our clients are leading initiatives to simplify their EHR systems. One client, Ballad Health, launched a "Getting Rid of Stupid Stuff" (GROSS) program. We love this joint initiative between IT and nursing departments to eliminate redundant information across all platforms. Bottom line: Nurses don’t want to wade through a wall of text.
With Rhazdrugs, hazardous drug information is updated in the background, so you don't depend on IT or, in the case of Epic, the Willow Team to make updates. Links don't break, and the information is continually updated, improving the health and safety of your healthcare workers.
Let’s look at these EHRs: Epic, Cerner, and Meditech:
EPIC:
In Epic, hospitals are implementing filtered views that allow nurses to quickly identify hazardous drugs through dedicated tabs and icons. When users click on handling instructions in the Medication Administration Record (MAR) or the order entry, they can access up-to-date monographs or the order information a pharmacist needs in a new window, streamlining the workflow while maintaining comprehensive information access.
CERNER:
Frew Meshesha, an attendee and Rhazdrugs and Cerner user, jumped in and demonstrated the effective use of "Smart Zones" to display hazardous drug information directly in the MAR. He showed us that the hazardous drug classes are displayed in the Smart Zone, which makes it easier to maintain compared to having to update each individual medication. When users click on the hyperlinks in the Smart Zone, it takes them directly to the hazardous drug information on the Rhazdrugs site. This allows the nurses to easily access the necessary information about PPE requirements, handling precautions, and other details for administering hazardous medications.
This approach maintains a single source of truth and eliminates the need to manage multiple data entry points, reducing the risk of outdated or incorrect information.
Here’s Frew demonstrating his use of Cerner ‘Smart Zones”:
MEDITECH:
Attendees had the privilege of learning from Aquila Ingram, PharmD, a Clinical Informaticist at St. Joseph's/Candler and an expert user of Rhazdrugs. Drawing on her experience with Meditech, Aquila showcased an innovative safety feature: a new implementation that displays automated alerts for hazardous drugs. This system requires nurses to confirm they have reviewed proper handling instructions before administering medication, adding an essential layer of safety to the process.
Don’t take it from us; check out this video to see how Aquila uses pop-ups to alert nurses about hazardous agents. Aquila even shared the instructions for creating the pop-up alerts, which we’re happy to send to you if you email us at info@rpharmy.com.
The key takeaway is clear: less is more when it comes to hazardous drug information in EHRs. By simplifying access points and maintaining a single source of truth, healthcare organizations can ensure their staff has quick access to current, accurate information, reduce the maintenance burden on IT teams, and improve overall healthcare worker safety.
What are your success stories? What are your pain points? How can we improve your hazardous drug safety efforts? Please let us know at info@rpharmy.com. We’re also here to answer any questions you might have.
***If you are a Rpharmy customer - either Rhazdrugs or Formweb - you can access these webinar presentations within your editor.